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Killing of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups by brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) at mainland breeding colonies along the coastal Namib Desert

Killing of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups by brown hyenas (Parahyaena... Brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) scavenge and kill seal pups at mainland Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) colonies. The prey encounter interval and interval between kills depended on seal density, and increased density resulted in an increase of the capture rate and increase in hunting efficiency from 14% in November to 47% in January. The time brown hyenas spent at the seal colony decreased with increasing seal density and increasing air temperatures. Nevertheless, they were regularly active during the day when less adult seals were present at the colony, which indicates that the attendance of adult seals might play a role in the choice of foraging time. Brown hyenas killed seal pups throughout the study period. The predation rate was independent of the availability of non-violent mortalities, but the absolute number of kills was positively density-dependent. Mass kill events were recorded throughout the study period and are therefore not unusual occurrences. The overabundance of easy and vulnerable prey may lead to an over stimulus situation that triggers killing independent of the consumption of the prey or the hunger state. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png acta ethologica Springer Journals

Killing of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups by brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) at mainland breeding colonies along the coastal Namib Desert

Wiesel, Ingrid
acta ethologica , Volume 13 (2) – Jun 8, 2010
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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Springer-Verlag and ISPA
Subject
Life Sciences; Behavioral Sciences; Zoology; Evolutionary Biology
ISSN
0873-9749
eISSN
1437-9546
DOI
10.1007/s10211-010-0078-1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) scavenge and kill seal pups at mainland Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) colonies. The prey encounter interval and interval between kills depended on seal density, and increased density resulted in an increase of the capture rate and increase in hunting efficiency from 14% in November to 47% in January. The time brown hyenas spent at the seal colony decreased with increasing seal density and increasing air temperatures. Nevertheless, they were regularly active during the day when less adult seals were present at the colony, which indicates that the attendance of adult seals might play a role in the choice of foraging time. Brown hyenas killed seal pups throughout the study period. The predation rate was independent of the availability of non-violent mortalities, but the absolute number of kills was positively density-dependent. Mass kill events were recorded throughout the study period and are therefore not unusual occurrences. The overabundance of easy and vulnerable prey may lead to an over stimulus situation that triggers killing independent of the consumption of the prey or the hunger state.

Journal

acta ethologica – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 8, 2010

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